Rapid Recap: Avalanche 3, Wild 2

ST. PAUL, Minn.--The Colorado Avalanche extended its win streak to four and finished its five-game road trip with a 4-1-0 mark after earning a 3-2 victory against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.
All five goals in the game were scored in the second period, and four of which came on special teams.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored the first goal of the game while Colorado was shorthanded after receiving the puck from Matt Calvert 97 seconds into the middle period. It was Calvert's 200th career NHL point, 14 of which have come while killing a penalty.
Nathan MacKinnon tallied while on the power play at 7:22 of the second frame, and Gabriel Landeskog scored for Colorado during even-strength play 3:14 later. Ryan Graves, Cale Makar, Nazem Kadri, Ian Cole and J.T. Compher added assists in the contest.

Minnesota scored twice while on the power play, receiving goals from Jared Spurgeon and Kevin Fiala.
Pavel Francouz made 34 saves in the game, his first time in game action since Jan. 20 against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Avalanche is now 2-2-0 against the Wild so far this season. The clubs will conclude their five-game season series on March 23 in Minnesota.
Statistics
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Photo Gallery
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Highlights
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Video: Coach Bednar Postgame

THE GOALS

1st Period
No Scoring
2nd Period
1:37 COL (1-0) - SHG, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare skated the puck into the offensive zone while shorthanded and scored with a shot from the left point.
4:58 MIN (1-1) - PPG, Jared Spurgeon tied the game after Zach Parise sent a pass through the crease from the goal line.
7:22 COL (2-1) - PPG, Nathan MacKinnon scored from the left circle on the power play while Gabriel Landeskog was screening goalie Devan Dubnyk.
10:36 COL (3-1) - Gabriel Landeskog collected a rebound in the high slot and scored the first even-strength goal of the game.
17:31 MIN (3-2) - PPG, Kevin Fiala skated with the puck from the right circle through the slot and cut Minnesota's deficit to one with a wrist shot that found the back of the net.
3rd Period
No Scoring
Final: Avalanche - 3 | Wild - 2

3 STARS

Selected by Wild.com

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 1 for 3
Minnesota: 2 for 4

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Pavel Francouz made his first start since Jan. 20 and stopped 34 shots.
Minnesota: Devan Dubnyk allowed three goals on 30 shots.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Matt Calvert assisted on Pierre-Edouard Bellemare's goal to record his 200th career NHL point. The left wing has 95 goals and 105 assists in 545 games in the league.
The Brandon, Manitoba, native has 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) this campaign and needs one goal (13 in 2014-15 with Columbus) and one point (26 in 2018-19) to match his career season highs in both categories.

NOTEBOOK

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare's goal was his 20th point of the year. Colorado has an NHL-most 15 players who have hit the 20-point mark this season… Bellemare's eight tallies this year sets a new personal best for the forward, besting his previous mark of seven in 2015-16 with the Philadelphia Flyers… Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar each extended their point streaks to four games. MacKinnon now has two goals and two assists in his streak, while Makar has a goal and four assists and is on a four-game assist streak as well… Makar has 30 assists this season, one behind Bruce Bell's single-season franchise mark for helpers by a rookie defenseman (31, 1984-85)… Ian Cole registered his 20th assist of the year, one shy of tying his career best of 21... It was the fourth of five meetings this year between the Avalanche and Wild, with the series split at 2-2-0. The clubs will conclude their yearly matchups on March 23 at Xcel Energy Center... The Avs concluded their five-game road trip with a 4-1-0 mark, outscoring its opponents by a 15-5 margin over the last four games. Colorado is 7-1-0 in its last eight games and 7-1-2 in its last 10 outings... The Avalanche's 18 road wins are second in the league behind only Washington (20)... Colorado closed out its ninth back-to-back set of the season and is 4-4-1 in the second game of such sets. After topping the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night, the Avs have now swept four sets of consecutive-night games this season... J.T. Compher tallied his 17th assist of the season, seting a new career high (16, 2018-19)... Gabriel Landeskog notched his fourth game-winning goal of the year and the 30th game-winner of his career, surpassing Matt Duchene to take sole possession of eighth place on the franchise's all-time game-winning goals list. He ranks fifth in game-winning tallies since the team moved to Denver in 1995.

QUOTABLE

Matt Calvert on the road trip: "The biggest thing is just playing a team game for us. You come out of the break, you don't know what to expect. We had some teams that were low in the standings and then we have a big character win in Columbus and follow it up with another character win tonight. Minnesota has beaten a lot of good teams and they are fighting for their playoff lives. To come out with two points on the road here and head home for a nice stretch here, we are pretty excited."

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

Battling on your birthday. Andre Burakovsky turned 25 years old on Sunday.

ROSTER REPORT

The Avalanche used the same skaters as it did in its last game on Saturday but made a change in net. Pavel Francouz started between the pipes for his first game since Jan. 20… Vladislav Kamenev and Calle Rosen were Colorado's healthy scratches.

INJURY UPDATE

Colin Wilson (lower body) remains out while rehabbing from two surgeries that he had earlier this season... Nazem Kadri was unable to finish the game due to a lower-body injury.

UP NEXT

The Avs return home for a five-game homestand that includes the 2020 NHL Stadium Series outdoor game at the U.S. Air Force Academy's Falcon Stadium on Saturday. The homestay opens against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on start of the game
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
11 Matt Calvert - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
17 Tyson Jost - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 83 Matt Nieto
Defensemen
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
16 Nikita Zadorov - 28 Ian Cole
Goaltenders
39 Pavel Francouz
31 Philipp Grubauer